How Cut Affects the Value of Tanzanite
As with all gemstones, a perfect cut is always the most valuable. However, because tanzanite is a precious and increasingly hard to find gem, it is more acceptable to see stones that are not quite perfectly cut. This is because a perfect cut requires that more of the gem material be cut away (reducing the amount of carat weight and possibly interesting color). It is not common to see really terrible cuts in tanzanite, either. But since color and clarity play a much more significant role in determining the value of the tanzanite, you should choose first based on those factors. Think of a good cut as icing on the cake.
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| Terrible Cut: You can see straight through this tanzanite and there is almost no sparkle. | Poor Cut: This gemstone has a nice sparkle around the edges, but light leeks through in the middle. | Mediocre Cut: There is no light “leakage” in this stone: we cannot see through it. However, the cut is still poor because there is very little sparkle. | Perfect Cut: This is what a perfectly cut tanzanite looks like: there is sparkle from every bit of the stone. There are no dark areas and no light leakage. |
